Family |
Fabaceae
Trifolium repens
L.
Trifolium repens L.
First published in Species Plantarum: 767 (1753)
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CXII nº 4; 1969)
• Life-form & habit: Glabrous perennial herb with creeping, rooting stems, often long and extending to 30–100 cm or more. Plant size and leaf proportions vary according to habitat moisture.
• Leaves: Long-petioled, with obovate or broadly elliptic leaflets, slightly petiolulate, often marked with a pale V-shaped chevron; leaflets up to 3 cm long or more in humid sites.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Axillary peduncles exceeding the leaves; heads subspherical, up to 3 cm in diameter, with distinctly pedicellate flowers that deflect after anthesis. Calyx teeth subulate, the two upper longer and equalling the tube. Corolla white, 10–15 mm long.
• Fruit: Sessile linear pod containing 3–4 seeds.
• Phenology: Flowers almost throughout the year.
• Habitat & elevation: Moist meadows, riverbanks, irrigated fields, and humid grasslands from coastal plains to montane valleys.
• Lebanese distribution: Reported by Mouterde from Beirut, Nahr el-Kelb, Tripoli, ʿAraya, ʿAbey, Bikfaya, Col de Zahlé, Ehden, Dimane, Roueissat, Chtaura, Deir Zenoun, Hailahi, Damascus and Ghouta, Homs, Hama, Qanaouat, and Chahba.
• Native range: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Altay, Austria, Azores, Baleares, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Buryatiya, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia–Slovakia, Denmark, East Aegean Is., East European Russia, East Himalaya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Føroyar, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Irkutsk, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon–Syria, Madeira, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, North Caucasus, North & Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Peninsula, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tadzhikistan, Tanzania, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tuva, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, West Himalaya, West Siberia, Zimbabwe.
• Introduced into: Widely naturalized, including Alabama, Alaska, Argentina, Brazil (South), Canada, Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and many temperate and subtropical regions (POWO).
• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Mouterde also recognised T. repens var. orphanideum Boiss., a high-mountain form with smaller leaflets (< 1 cm) and pinkish corolla, occurring between Jabal Sannine and Jabal Kneissé around the Col de Zahlé, and above Bloudane on Jabal ech-Cheikh (Hermon)